Good Samaritan Society - Forest City

In addition to receiving a strong overall score, this place also received top notch government inspections in recent years. We gave it one of our best grades in that area, with an A. Inspection ratings weigh several factors included in a nursing home's inspection report. One of the most important criteria we look at is the number and severity of deficiencies. Places with better grades in this category generally have very few of these severe deficiencies. While this facility had a few deficiencies on its report, none of them were major deficiencies based on CMS' scale. Finally, this facility had no substantiated complaints this year from residents, which is an excellent sign.

Adding to its profile, this facility also received a score of B for its long-term care rating. This is an above average score in this category. When facilities receive this kind of score in this category it is typically a good sign for patient care and indicates that the facility is well-staffed with nurses aids. Once we finished looking at the amount of care provided by nurses, we turned to the nursing home's vaccination record. This facility vaccinated 98.4252 percent of its patients for pneumonia, which is very impressive. Pneumonia tragically can be a life threatening illness for nursing home residents so we strongly prefer when a facility does not leave this to chance. Clearly, this place is doing something right in this area as it also excelled at keeping its residents out of the hospital. In fact, it had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is an impressively low number.

The next category we assessed was short-term care. This nursing home received an impressive short-term care grade, with a grade of B in this area. Our short-term care scores are considered to be most critical for those requiring a nursing home for rehabilitation. Rehabilitation generally mandates more skilled nursing services. This means not merely nursing, but also physical and occupational therapy, as well as other forms of therapy. Fortunately, it looks like this nursing home employs registered nurses. Not every facility employs these skilled professionals. On the other hand, according to the data they provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. Lastly, we looked at the percentage of patients who ultimately were able to return home from this facility. We found that 0 percent of this facility's residents were able to return home.

Turning to our next area, this nursing home received a B- in nursing, which is generally an acceptable score. Our nursing rating looks at the facility's nurse staffing levels. We factor in both the levels of licensure of those nurses and the number of hours spent with residents. This nursing home averages 0.3 hours of nursing care per patient each day, which is well below average. Lastly, we also looked at some nursing quality measures. While this place got docked a bit for its nursing hours per resident, it excelled in some of these quality measures. With less than five percent of its patients experiencing pressure ulcers, it did well in this subcategory. This is typically an indicator of quality nursing care. Pressure ulcers can generally be avoided by providing better nursing care, such as having a protocol of turning residents more often.